Fruit-jar holder



(No Model.)

B. K'. 85 W. S. SHEPPARD.

FRUIT JAR HOLDER.

.No. 590,710. Patented Sept. 28,1897.

WITNESSESI Sufi hfippmma, INVENTOB'S,

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m: nomus PETERS co., PNOTO-LITNDY, msnmoron, a. c,

UNITED STATES PATENT Grinch,

EPHRAIM K. SHEPPARD, OF PITTSTOWN, AND VILLIAM S. SHEPPARD, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

FRUlT-'JAR'HOLDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 590,710, dated September 2 8, 1897.

Application filed April 9,1897. Serial No. 631,408. (No model.)

. ings, and to letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

The object of this invention is to provide an implement adapted to serve, in connection with the ordinary fruit jars or cans, in holding said jars in the canning operations when the said jars are highly heated and cannot comfortably be handled by the naked hands; to provide such a device of a simple construction at a low cost of manufacture, one that can be employed in connection with glass jars without danger of breaking the glass, and to secure other advantages and results, some of which may be referred to hereinafter in connection with the description of the working parts.

The invention consists in the improved fruit-jar holder and in the arrangements and combinations of parts thereof, all substantially as will be hereinafter set forth and finally embraced in the clauses of the claim.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, in which like letters of .reference indicate corresponding parts in each of the views, Figure 1 is a plan of the improved implement. Fig. 2 is aside view of the same, and Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken at line 00, Fig. 1. p

In said drawings, a indicates two metallic sections, preferably of cast metal. Said sections are pivoted or hinged together at one end, as at b,and at the opposite ends are provided with handles, as at c c, the pivotal cars 01 d and the said handles 0 0 being formed integral with the body portions of the castings. Between the said handles 0 c and pivotal ears (I d the said sections are made semicircular, as at e, the semicircular parts extending oppositely and the -concavit-ies coinciding so as to form, when the device is shut, a complete circle inclosing the mouth or'neck' of the jar or the body thereof. To secure a broad bearing on the jar, the said semicircular portions are provided with integral flanges f, and to obtain the requisite strength we have formed on the convex sides of the semicircles strengthening-ribs g. The said flanges f also serve as keepers to receive series of cushions h. Said cushions are preferably made of rubber, toconform to the flanges f, inclosing the same, as shown in Fig.

3, and being thus held in proper operative will always be held at a point convenient for grasping. The loop 7; also serves to prevent lateral movement of the sections in relation to one another, so that there will be no lat eral strain upon the hinge or the ears d d thereof, such as would tend to break the same,

and the'semicircular jars are kept in proper alinement or in a given plane, so that the pressure will be properly brought upon the opposite sides of the jar to hold the same firmly. The handles are preferably made hollow on their inner sides, so as toreduce the weight of the device. Adjacent to said loop 1' on the inner sides the said handles are provided with a pintle or pintles it, also cast integral with the casting in the preferred construction, and on which is arranged a spring j, which serves to hold the handles normally in their open position at the outer limit of the loop.

In operating the device the normally open handles are grasped by the hand and the semicircular portions of the sections or castings are passed over the top of the jar to the desired point of grasping the same. Pressure is then brought upon the handles to close the same together, when the jar will be grasped with a yielding pressure due to the cushions and Will be held with great firmness without any danger of being broken or of the hands being burned or rendered uncomfortable.

After the filling operation by simply relaxing the grasp the device will open and may then be Withdrawn from the jar.

The holder may be employed in opening the jar after standing a greater or less period, and when the cover is held by the cementitious action of the contents, it serves to give a purchase or leverage upon the jars when unscrewing, so that the opening is rendered more easy. It also may serve in like manner when the cover is screwed upon the jar.

Having thus described the invention, what we claim as new is 1. The combination with the hinged sections or castings provided with handles at one end and hinged at the other, one of said handles being provided with a loop 2', formed integral therewith for limiting and guiding the movements of the other section or casting, substantially as set forth.

2. The combination with the sections a, a, hinged as at b, and provided with semicircular oppositely-flanged portions e, which are cushioned as at h, the cushions inclosing the flanges, the said semicircular portions having integral handles 0, c, and means for limiting the opening movements of said handles, of a spring normally holding the said sections in their open position, substantially as set forth.

3. The improved fruit-jar holder comprisin g two castings having coinciding oppositely-. extending semicircular portions with vertical flanges f, and strengthening-ribs g, handles 0, o, and a loop cast upon one of said handles and inclosing the other and limiting its movements and cushions h, h, comprising pieces of molded rubber which inolose said flanges f, substantially as set forth.

In testimony that we claim the foregoing we have hereunto set our hands this 1st day of April, 1897.

EPHRAIM' K. SHEPPARD. WILLIAM S. SHEPPARD. \Vitnesscs for E. K. Sheppard:

P. O. LITTLE, A. L. BEST. Witnesses for WV. S. Sheppard:

CHARLES H. PELL, O. B. PITNEY. 

